International Surfing Day: The Aftermath

Well, we told the world to go surfing yesterday. And judging from the accounts trickling in from around the world, we had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

So what if it was the flattest day in six weeks on Australia’s East Coast? Two feet and rainy in Durban? Onshore and tattered in Puerto Escondido? The bottom line is: surfers took on June 21 not just as another excuse to check the waves, but as a day to scour our beaches and make them better than they found ’em.

And for those who actually did get waves on June 21? It only made the beach cleanups sweeter. California enjoyed a solid, head-high southwest/windswell combo with sunny skies and light offshores in the morning. Good deedster Machado, along with fellow good deedster Pat O’Connell found their own private peak for a few hours in Camp Pendleton, and claimed a surprising amount of tube time. It also happened to be Day One at Lower Trestles for the NSSA National Championships and every top up-and-comer with a US passport was down in the cobbles, biting nails and laying down rails in their heats. North Florida’s Eric Geiselman even followed in fellow statesman Kelly Slater’s footsteps with a perfect 20 in his Round One {{{Explorer}}} Juniors heat. The boys back east found a rare, off-season pulse, with fun, head-high peaks on the Outer Banks. Jesse Hines, Noah Snyder and Carl Wallin were on it, of course – along with SURFING’s own DJ Struntz.

Abroad, it’s sounding like our best score was the ongoing deluge of solid swell on Reunion Island. The boys are back in town for the first WCT event at St. Leu in seven years, and they’re all there now, warming up for Thursday’s start. Expect to see some serious AI backside blasts from these parts. We also got word from contributor Alan {{{Van}}} Gysen that the Maldives was overhead and barreling, so we’ll see what that yields.

All in all, a successful mission in the name of clean tubes and cleaner beaches. If you pulled off both or either of ’em yesterday, consider it a job well done.

[Stay tuned to www.SurfingTheMag.com for more official numbers from International Surfing Day.]

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